This document relates generally to the field of multi-function devices (MFDs), and, in particular, to printers, scanners and devices having both printing and scanning capabilities and to the printing of documents using templates with pre-defined printable areas using those devices.
It is common practice and well known in the art to print documents, such as letters, certificates and forms using pre-printed media or media printed locally which contain markings not typically considered part of the content of the document being printed. For example, a company may have letterhead paper pre-printed with the company's logo, trademark, or other graphic along with other information, such as the company's address. Such markings often appear in the margins of the page (top, bottom, left or right margins) and are often pre-printed or printed locally when a document requires such information.
A problem arises when using media having pre-printed or locally printed markings. Soft copies of documents to be printed on pre-printed media are often created using word-processing software, which does not display the pre-printed areas of the physical media. As such, a user may be unaware of where on a given page content may be placed. This often leads to a trial-and-error process of producing a document having the correct spacing, causing the user to print out multiple copies of the document before a correctly formatted document is achieved, resulting in a waste of resources and time. Furthermore, the user must manually adjust header, footer and margins of the softcopy of the document to fit into the printable area. This is often an advanced function that may be beyond the capability of casual users of the word processing software.
Therefore, it would be desirable to make the process of fitting documents onto pre-printed media easier and more foolproof.